Designing better processes for product design

Earlier this year, the company I work for underwent significant strategic, administrative, and team changes. These movements created an urgent need for us to reimagine ourselves as a company and reorganize dynamics that had failed in the past. We wanted to focus on how we create and launch products, as in the past we had struggled to get to market first and had issues with quality and reliability.

After several retro meetings and conversations among colleagues, the symptom was clear: we weren’t compelling enough to make project agreements, share a strategic idea, or lead conversations with stakeholders. We needed to improve our processes so that we got the most out of our team and product.

As a product manager, one of your biggest challenges is defining an effective and suitable working style for everyone. The quality of your interactions with your peers can determine whether you get ahead of your competition or burnout and fall behind. This article unpacks how to go about setting up and operating a successful process.

Case study of building an effective process

Returning to the example that I opened with, part of our problem was the seniority level within the tech team (product, engineering, and product design). We suffered from:

• Unrealistic ETA’s — Time estimates were based mainly on intuition, not more realistic scenarios. Consequently, we launched products far from an estimated date, creating distrust among internal and external clients
• Confusing or ambiguous product definitions — Even though we launched something, the next thing to worry about was the quality of the product. Due to poor definitions, the product could face incomplete functionalities or not completely satisfy users’ needs
• Untimely feedback compromising the project’s progress — Not considering key stakeholders or definitions from early stages led us to break the progress and restart again

How do you work in scenarios like this? In the past, we tried some known product methodologies but they didn’t work out for us due to a lack of ownership among the team. What started well at first always ended up as a mere concept.

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Seniority at this level is crucial; highly sophisticated processes thrive if you count on a high seniority level within the group. Conversely, a low-seniority team requires a simple, easy-to-understand set of actions to follow and execute.

Part of discovering a process suitable for us was determining some basic rules for how this process would work. We determined that we needed something easy to understand and apply and something that could become a daily framework that would evolve into the team’s DNA.

With these rules in mind, we sought to build an easy and attractive process that could become a part of our team’s daily routine. By creating a habit around our process we were able to have wide-spread adoption that, in time, began to define us.

How do you build a suitable process for your team?

At this point, you might be saying to yourself, “Well that sounds great, but how do I approach this with my team?” From the start you need to determine your team’s maturity, talent, and challenges. We also identified the following stages:

Spot the issue (what’s not working?)

Before thinking about a new process, understand your team’s symptoms and pain points. Do you struggle with communication, product quality, talent, or all the above? Once you know this, you can find an existing framework to address this, or start ideating on a new process that solves your workflow issues (my case).

When approaching your process, remember that:

This process will fail if:

• People don’t understand its purpose
• It’s too complex to execute
• It’s relegated to a document that no one refers to
• It cannot be measured or, at least, used beyond execution

This process will succeed if:

• If people adopt it as a daily way of work
• If people understand the value and evolve it to seek broader benefits
• If people embrace it as a foundation for many work interactions (status, strategic updates, praise, alerts, definitions, etc.)

The idea (what can we do to solve that situation?)

At this stage, you can decide whether to implement something proven in other companies or to create a unique set of stages that work for your team. In our case, we followed the latter because we realized our team needed special attention and follow-up along the process.

A quick reflection: There’s a lot on the Internet about companies being revolutionary by implementing some framework, but this may not be your ideal path. These flows may not meet your team’s needs, and creating a custom solution rather than following industry trends might be more valuable for your company.

Define actors (connect the right people)

If you decide you need a unique framework, someone has to step up and start leading. Determine the key actors who will drive the new dynamic and make sure it keeps working effectively.

How do you choose the right person? Business advisor James C. Collins says, “First Who … Then What. We found that great leaders got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats—and then they figured out where to drive it.”

Hype and reality (the cemetery of ideas)

Once you have a new process, you have to turn your attention towards making sure that it survives the hype stage and becomes a reality. Gartner’s Hype Cycle illustrates the phenomenon I’m pointing out:

This cycle has five stages: Innovation Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and Plateau of Productivity.

You need to pay the most attention to stage three: not getting immediate retribution or results demoralizing the team, leading to massive resignations. Actors at this level should play a pivotal role in achieving critical milestones like handling over-expectations properly within the team and stakeholders. The other responsibility of the actors in this stage is to enlighten people about the positive consequences of this process, even if it is not entirely refined or perfect.

Over time, team members will understand all the positive things this new dynamic can bring, taking them to the next phase: the productivity plateau, where everyone has already adopted the process.

Part of a routine (when an idea covers familiar places)

A process becomes more robust when you embrace it daily. Imagine that you and your team fix your workflow with a new process. Ideally the process would also be your framework for reporting incidents, achievements, alerts, and progress.

Now the process is a vital tool you need to perform at work. This helps improve the maturity of your team, as well as the incorporation of the process into your overall workflow. Once incorporated, you can count on massive adoption.

Success (when the process is now part of your DNA)

It’s hard to beat the feeling of belonging. When your way of work becomes part of your identity, you have accomplished something that for many remains unreachable. Successful companies have a distinguished way of working that enables employees to take problems and drive innovations.

Final takeaways

This experience taught me a lot; there’s a lot to cover regarding how to recognize the work environment, its limitations, and how to develop it. I hope this article gives you the resources you need to start optimizing your own processes.

My biggest takeaways are:

• Not every company is the same, so not all solutions hold the formula for success
• Not every tech team is the same. Work what what you have to drive positive results
• To find value in a process, you must let it grow; sometimes, results take time. Keep pushing ahead

Featured image source: IconScout

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